Waiting for You
by Kosaka
Summary: Relena is heartbroken over losing Heero to Duo. Wufei takes pity on her and the two become friends. . . or maybe something more? Complete at 5 chapters. R&R is ALWAYS appreciated.
1. Part I: Solitude

Disclaimer: I don't own the g-boys, just borrowing. Will return them properly in tact. . . or at least reasonably so. *smirks*  
  
Summary: Wufei x Relena and others. Some yaoi pairings. If you don't like that, well, then poop on you. That's life honey.  
  
Relena is heart-broken over losing Heero to Duo. Wufei takes pity on her and the two become friends and.maybe something more. . .  
  
---------------  
  
Waiting for You  
  
By: Banshee Puppet  
  
Part I: Solitude  
  
Autumn, and the leaves had just begun to turn color. They would brown soon and fall, turn eventually into dust as they did every year, but right now, they were the most beautiful thing Wufei could imagine. 'You finally did something right Maxwell.' Wufei reflected on the choice of campus, which had been Duo's, and was not at all displeased. It was organized logically, decorated aesthetically, and it seemed the student body was mostly studious and didn't bother him much. It was peaceful here. He would have lied this quiet time to last forever, to sit under this cherry tree like this, relaxing, a cool breeze billowing against the black polyester blend pants of his uniform (a bit more constricting than his usual white cotton, but not characteristically uncomfortable)-but he knew that he was a soldier, that he and Nataku would have to return to the battlefield eventually. Still, while this time lasted, he was going to make the best of it. His classes over for the day, he leaned his head back against the tree and let his eyes drift closed; homework could wait until after dinner. Quatre would be in Trowa and Duo's room by then anyway(he practically lived there); and Duo practically lived in Heero's room, and Heero had hacked into the system and invented himself an imaginary roommate so he didn't have to share. Why they never arranged it so that those four were where they wanted to be was beyond him, but he'd decided that applying logic to the minds of his fellow pilots was rarely the brilliant idea it at first seemed. The advantage to having his fellow pilots fawning over one another was that it didn't leave them much time for hassling him. But none of that mattered now; he was content, at east. A small smile played across his lips as he rested his eyes.  
  
Unfortunately, his peace would not last long.  
  
".he has a way of conveniently disappearing when he wants to, doesn't he?" Quatre was saying as he walked hand in hand with Trowa.  
  
Heero nodded with his usual monosyllabic grunt, hands shoved into his pockets so that Duo didn't get any ideas. He wasn't very good with public displays of affection yet was all. Not to mention that the whole "Duo is a guy" thing had taken some getting used to as well. It was all pretty new and Duo was surprisingly understanding.  
  
The four had just been discussing Wufei's increasingly regular disappearing acts when Trowa said, "disappearing huh? He's right over there. Looks like he's.taking a nap?" That didn't seem like Wufei at all, but they had to admit, none of them really knew Wufei all that well. There was a running joke that Sally Po was the resident expert, and she didn't even know the Chinese pilot's birthday.  
  
The group stopped and watched him in the distance for a moment before Duo said, "Let's leave him be. He looks relaxed for once. Be a shame to spoil that."  
  
"Duo."  
  
It seemed so out of character was all, but Heero had been discovering that Duo did indeed have a serious side and it was accompanied by a soft heart which he hoped he wouldn't accidentally crush. Duo was.important to him, even if finding the right words was a challenge.  
  
"I knew fe'd like it here. That's why I picked it. He's seemed so stressed; I thought a quiet place would be the best one for him to unwind."  
  
"Duo. You're really such a kind person," Quatre said with his usual gentle smile.  
  
"Aw shucks Q-man, it's not htat. The rest of us get along fine. We've all got each other, ya know. But Wu is all alone. Maybe the fact that we've all got each other makes him feel more alone, or maybe it's got something to do with that Meiran chick he mentions in passing sometimes----who knows? Whatever the case, if he continues the way he's been going he's gonna make a mistake, maybe get himself killed, and that's bad for all of us."  
  
Summoning up his courage as Duo spoke, Heero dropped a hand out of his pocket in case Duo wanted to.(gulp).hold hands. 'It'll be okay if he does,' Heero thought. 'I don't think I'd mind. I mean, we're together now so.Duo, I'm trying,.please notice. It's there. Just, just.take it. Hold my hand.'  
  
But before anything can come of Heero's secret hopes, he's frozen, every muscle in his body tensing. That voice. Thant bolnd hair, those too-blue eyes. That Girl! Why was SHE here? Why couldn't she go away?  
  
"Heero!" Relena called happily, as if they'd just accidentally run into one another. AS if this was perfectly normal. Normal for her, maybe.  
  
At first he'd thought, 'maybe, maybe I have feelings for her,' but he'd been wrong. He didn't have I that/I kind of feelings. She just had a way of unhinging him so. He cared about her, sure, that was a given. Abut her safety. I mean, she was completely incapable of protecting herself. She did some of the STUPIDEST things. It drove him nuts. But like that? No. He didn't care about her like that. That's how he cared about Duo, beautiful, kind-hearted, patient Duo. But how was he supposed to tell HER that? Three simple words, 'Relena, I'm gay' would do it, but how could he? She was so stubborn she probably wouldn't believe him and he'd have to explain, but it would inevitably come out all wrong and he'd end up saying something stupid about how he was enamored by Duo's ass or some other such ridiculous thing; it would inevitably turn out horribly, so how could he say it, any of it? For chrissake, he couldn't even tell Duo, who he loved more than he thought possible, that he wanted to hold his hand.  
  
In the end, between his sudden migraine and the frog that appears to be stuck in his throat, all he can manage to sputter out is, "R-Relena. What are you doing here?"  
  
"Well I came to see you, silly," she sanswer, unphased.  
  
Hearing that voice call Heero's name, Wufei cringed. It was that Relena girl tha twas so hung up on the Japanese pilot. 'Tell her, Heero,' Wufei thought. 'Once and for all, just tell her. Break her heart if you have to, shatter it into a million tiny pieces. Better to kill her quickly than to make her suffer like this."  
  
He could hear Heero tell her, "that's a stupid reason," and he knew that was all Yuy was gonna say. He was right, the footsteps that he'd come ot know as Heero's were departing, and Duo's weren't far behind.  
  
'Heero, you unjust bastard. It isn't right. Coward. You're a fucking coward, Yuy,' Wufei thought.  
  
"Well, it was nice to see you again Relena, but Trowa and I have a class to get to, and we can't be late again," Quatre said as Trowa was already dragging him off. Not really Quatre's place to say, so Wufei couldn't really be mad, could he? So why was he? Enough was enough, he decided as he stood up and brushed himself off. Somebody had to say something.  
  
'Those two are so perfect for each other.just like me and Heero,' Relena was thinking as they disappeared inside. The thought was abruptly cut off as a dark-haired figure stopped beside her. She turned her head and looked up, and shivered-it was that Wufei guy-he was such a bastard, and what he said next would only reinforce that belief in her. He didn't even look at her, just stared ahead with that constipated expression of his and said, 'You're not his type. You should just give up," and started to walk away.  
  
That sort of behavior made her so mad. She grabbed his wrist to stop him. "You can't just say something like that and leave! What is that supposed to mean?"  
  
She sounded mad. Wufei didn't expect her to make this an issue.  
  
She'd never seemed phased much by his manners before. Nobody did. It was just-how he was.  
  
"It means what it means," he said. "He isn't interested in you. You should move on with you're life and stop followinghim around. They call you "Heero's stalker" you know, and it's NOT A term of endearment. Please let go of my arm now."  
  
Relena's hand drpooed. 'Bastard,' she thought. 'Why is he saying such cruel things? Why does he hate me so much?'  
  
"well what Iis/I Heero's type then, since you're such an expert!" she seethed.br He'd begun to leave again, but this stopped him.  
  
"Dorlain, how thick are you?" he said. "The kind with a penis, of course. You'd have to be blind not to notice. As far as Heero's concerned, that idiot can do no wrong."  
  
Not once did Wufei look at her during that conversation, and now he was walking away and she wasn't stopping him. He was afraid if he looked at her, saw she was in pain and he was causing it, he'd chicken out. Didn't know why he cared; it was just something that had to be done. But that's not how Relena saw it. 'Asshole. You can at least look at me if you're goin to say something like that.' "You.YOU'RE LYING!!!" she called after him, but he didn't stop, didn't turn around.  
  
"Believe what you want," he whispered softly to himself. There was no helping her if she was going to be like that.  
  
'Bastard,' Relena thought, so why this sudden urge to chase after him, to force him to look at her and say that, and why were her feet moving on their own? Maybe because he was a bastard, maybe it was that simple. He'd just made her so angry, she couldn't help it.  
  
But Wufei Chang walked fast; he kept his own pace; he wasn't waiting for anyone. As she turned acorner to try to catch up with him, he'd managed to disappear somehow. Of course he knew she was chasing him; Relena had never been good at hiding these things and he was a professional. But had he meant for her to see this?  
  
Heero and Duo were up this hallway, and they hadn't noticed her. On the surface it was all pretty innocent; they were just talking. But.Heero was talking, and smiling, and he looked so happy. She even thought she saw him chuckle. Wufei had been right, she couldn't compete with that. Duo made Heero happy.  
  
Relena felt like she would die right there, but she refused to cry. She was happy for Heero; she really was. It's just that now she felt so alone, so empty. She found herself wandering the campus aimlessly for hours before accidentally stumbling across a nameplate that had fallen from a door which must have been slammed too hard. Bending down to pick it up, she mouthed the names. 'Chang Wufei' and 'Winner, Quatre Raberba'. It almost felt like fate as she laid her hand on the cold wooden door. She didn't really want to see Quatre right now, but that other one.what was it she wanted to say to him? She made up her mind to knock.  
  
Wufei adjusted his glasses and sat back with a sigh as he stared at the paragraph it had taken him the past five hours to write. It wasn't even very good. He just couldn't concentrate. He kept remembering the way the anger at him melted right out of her expression. He'd watched her heart breaking and couldn't get it out of his mind. Wufei had hidden in the janitorial closet like a coward. He was a coward, a total coward, no better than Yuy in the end. It had to be done but, he shouldn't have watched, he shouldn't have.it hadn't really been any of his business. And on another note, why did he care so much? Why couldn't he stop thinking of her, wondering if she was okay?  
  
He tried to shake the thought out of his mind. This paper was due tomorrow and he'd hardly even started it. 'Better get back to work,' he thought, but just as his pen hit the page once again, there was a knock on the door. 'Figures,' he thought as he got up.  
  
Finding Relena on the other side of the door was a shock, but he tried to conceal it.sort of impossible once her palm connected with his cheek and sent his glasses flying into the nameplate on the door, and both items went tumbling to the ground. He crouched down to pick them up, saying nothing.  
  
Until Wufei answered the door, Relena hadn't settled on an emotion, but apparently she was still angry because her hand connected with his cheek before she knew what happened, and afterwards she already felt guilty.  
  
"You could have been a little more gentle," she said softly, now suddenly feeling like she was either going to cry, or be sick, or both.  
  
"So could you," he answered blankly as he stood up with the nameplate and his glasses(which were now most definitely, in two separate pieces) in his hands.  
  
"I.I'm sorry for calling you a liar," she said quickly, looking down at her hands; which were busily fiddling with the edge of her jacket. It was so much easier to look at him when he looked pissed off. But with concern in those ebony eyes, that HE could look like that.it was just too much for her somehow. She wanted to tell him to stop. 'Stop looking at me like that!' her mind screamed.  
  
"Quatre isn't here," he told her, the obvious assumption on his voice.  
  
"Can I come in?" she asked. "I won't bother you, I just." she hadn't finished her sentence when Wufei stepped aside to allow her entry, not fully understanding why; it would be just as easy to tell her to go away and close the door in her face, so why couldn't he do it?  
  
"I won't bother you," she said again. "I just.don't want to be alone right now."  
  
Still, Wufei said nothing, merely closed the door behind him after replacing the nameplate, checking to see that it was straight before closing the door.gently.br His portion of the room was impeccable, she noticed, a few books liked up on the nightstand, the bed perfectly made, the desk bare save a few sheets of paper, a pen, and an open textbook. He'd been doing homework. It seemed funny to her suddenly, a gundam pilot doing homework. And as he stood by his desk, meticulously inspecting his broken glasses, with a small sigh realizing that it was hopeless to reattatch the offending arm and pulling out a role of scotch tape, Chang Wufei seemed suddenly(and for the very first time) human in Relena's eyes.  
  
"I did a job on them, didn't I? I'll replace them," she offered.  
  
"Don't bother. I've already fixed them," he told her blandly as he put the scotch tape away. She'd been trying to peer over his shoulder at the damages when he turned suddenly and found her very close-close enough to notice that in spite of this day, there wasn't a tear stain on that ivory skin of hers, that, unlike most girls, she wasn't hiding behind a mask of makeup.  
  
She was dealing with this all quite well, much better than could be expected; he remembered crying like a baby when he lost Meiran. Granted, Heero wasn't dead, but a year was a long time to have hope for something so hopeless.  
  
"Oh! They look awful!" she said, seeing the taped up glasses in his hand.br "They'll still serve their purpose. How they look is unimportant," he answered. He could hardly breathe with her this close, not that he could fathom why. He turned his back to her again. "I have a paper to write, but if you want to stay, then stay," he said.  
  
After Wufei had situated himself back at his desk and flipped a page of what Relena realized was a history textbook, she sat quietly on the edge of his bed. A few minutes of silence passed like some weight boring down on both of them before Wufei said, "if you're bored, you can watch television or turn on the radio. It won't distract me." He lied. This was just so awkward, for both of them.  
  
"It's alright. I'm fine, but, thank you," Relena returned. She knew he lied.  
  
Saying nothing, he returned to his paper. Maybe half-an-hour passed like this, as Relena sat silently, occasionally glimpsing Wufei, who was writing without interruption now. But when he leaned back for a moment with a small yawn, Relena asked, "Wufei?"  
  
"Mmn?"  
  
"Is it okay if I read one of your books for a little while?"  
  
"As long as you return it to its proper place when you're finished with it," he answered before going back to his paper.  
  
So Relena pulled a book out of the small pile, a warn hardcover with what she found to be quite a bit of commentary scrawled in the margins, the title being A Tale of Two Cities. In truth, she only skimmed the book after the first ten pages, seeking out the sections that Wufei had underlined or otherwise marked up, always curious about what a quiet guy like him had to say, and occasionally, unexpectedly, he said something funny and a small snicker would escape her lips.  
  
Wufei assumed it was the book that she was enjoying so much, not knowing which she had chosen, but what she was really enjoying was him-that secret part of him that he shared with no one. He had forgotten about how he, what seemed like a lifetime ago now, marked books up with his thoughts like that. On the last page of the book was written the sentence, "Meiran would hate this book," and Relena couldn't help but wonder who this Meiran person was. She'd always seen Wufei alone, had mistakenly assumed that he had always been that way, but maybe there was another side to him after all, a reason for him to be the way he was.  
  
He put down his pen and leaned back, took off his glasses and rubbed the slight headache from his eyes, closed his textbook, stood and stretched out the taut muscles in his back and arms before going into his closet to pull out a laptop and a small printer.  
  
"Did YOU mark this book up like this?" Relena asked.  
  
"Hm? Oh, yes. That was a long time ago," he answered as he hooked up the machines, "when I was at academy."  
  
"You went to an Academy?" she asked, finding it somehow very difficult to imagine.  
  
'Why did I just tell her that?' he wondered.  
  
"For a little while. I wasn't I always/I a gundam pilot, Relena."  
  
"Oh! Of course not. I'm sorry, that was silly of me; it's just so easy to forget."  
  
"." he stopped fiddling for a moment before saying. "Yes. It is."  
  
"Can I ask.who Meiran is?"  
  
She'd hit a nerve, she could tell by the way his muscles suddenly tensed at the sound of that name. "I'm sorry," Relena said quickly. "forget I asked."  
  
".No, it's alright," he said. "It was a long time ago, like I said." Wufei began fiddling with the wires again, going over some that were already connected as half-an-excuse not to look at the girl behind him as he spoke. "Meiran was my wife. She died a few years ago. It was an arranged marriage but.I guess I loved her, a little.or maybe more than a little. Who can say really? We were.young."  
  
"Wufei." Relena began to say. As expected, he didn't look at her as he spoke, going out of his way to not do so(which drove her a little nuts), but she could tell his feelings from his voice, the way he faltered through the conversation. Of course he'd loved her. He'd always love her a little. Relena wondered if that's how it would be for her with Heero, that she'd always love him a little.  
  
"I'm going to make some tea. Would you like some?" Wufei asked. "I only have one cup, but I'm sure Winner wouldn't mind you using one of his as long as I wash it when you're finished."  
  
"Please.Thank you," Relena said.  
  
Wufei went into the tiny kitchen area to make two cups of tea and Relena wasn't sure what to do. Meiran, why'd she have to bring THAT up? They were both wondering. With the thumb and forefinger of his right hand, Wufei wiped the moisture from his eyes and cursed himself for the weakness. "Nataku," he whispered to himself aloud. "I miss you so much, but I can't go on like this, in this sort of pain. I want my life back, Meiran, I want it, but I don't even remember what my life was like before you. I keep telling myself that I just have to start over, but I can't seem to get anything accomplished. I'm a lot stronger than I used to be, but.I'm still not as strong as you were," he choked back a small sob, and his shoulders wrenched a bit with the effort. ".stupid woman.they were just flowers.flowers."  
  
The whistle on the tea kettle blew as Wufei wiped his eyes again. He shook his head slightly as he turned off the flame. "Self-pity doesn't suit you, Chang," he told himself. "Especially when that girl out there is being so strong. You have got to be at least as strong as she is, at least." Even though e was whispering, his voice trailed off a bit there, and then he scolded himself. "But first, stop talking to yourself and make the damn tea."  
  
Relena grabbed her chest and ran from the kitchen doorway before Wufei could see her there, spying on him. It hadn't been her intention; she had planned to go help, but when she got to the doorway and heard him talking to himself, saw him wiping his eyes, she decided against it; even she knew that he wouldn't want to be seen like this: crying was weak, and he wanted to be strong. 'Stupid. Why'd you have to mention her?' she mentally scolded herself. He didn't want anyone to know he had a side like this. That was why, that was why he acted like such a bastard, he was overcompensating. It was all an act. Of course he didn't like being all alone, who would?  
  
She sat down at his desk and began typing the header for his paper. 'Wufei Chang.' Then remember the nameplate on the door, deleted this and typed 'Chang Wufei' ENTER. 'Twentieth Century Western Civilization.' She mused for a moment about what a long-winded course title that was before Wufei appeared through the doorway to her left.  
  
"Nobody ever taught you how to type," he observed as she poked at the keys with two mauve-polished fingers and he put her tea cup on a napkin next to her on the desk.  
  
"I type fine," she protested.  
  
"You type slowly," he retorted, moving behind her to see the screen while asking, "what ARE you doing, anyway?"  
  
"I'm typing your paper for you," she answered.  
  
This surprised him, but sure enough, that's what she was doing as he watched the tedious formation of the word "September".  
  
"It'll be quicker if I do it myself," he told her, but Relena pouted a bit before saying, "It's the least that I can do for you after all you've done for me today. You told me the truth when no one else would, you didn't yell at me when I broke your glasses, and you let me stay here for the past three hours, even though you didn't have to. So just let somebody do something for you this one time. You look exhausted; your eyes are all red. You work too hard, Wufei, so just relax for a little while."  
  
"Relena," he began, not really sure of where to take the sentence once he'd started it, but luckily, she didn't give him the opportunity to say more. She waved one hand in his face and said, "Shoo. I'm not taking no for an answer."  
  
He sighed and told her, "you're too stubborn," as he moved towards his bed.  
  
".there's no such ting as too stubborn," she returned flippantly. "Now read something or turn on the radio or whatever, all this talking is distracting me," she told him.  
  
"I say about ten words a day and every time I turn around some woman is telling me to shut up. There's no justice in the world-none at all," Wufei complained as he leaned back against the wall. "You're as bad as Sally," he told her.  
  
Relena hadn't realized that Wufei knew Sally, but that was beside the point entirely. She stalked over to him, put the broken glasses on his rather surprised face and shoved A Tale of Two Cities, which just happened to be the nearest book) into his chest. "I like you better quiet, you jerk," she said. Then, with a smile and a playful pat on the cheek, she added, "now relax. I'm going to take care of everything," before moving back over to the desk.  
  
"This is what worries me," he returned before just barely blocking a.flying stack of printer paper?? 'What the hell?' he thought before realizing that Relena had grabbed the nearest loose object and thrown it at him.  
  
".and don't tell me you didn't deserve it," she scolded.  
  
He opened his book and said, "do you mind? I'm trying to read." He couldn't' help but snicker a bit, looking at the scattered papers and deciding, 'I'll pick them up later.'.  
  
"You write very eloquently," Relena said sometime later, half-expecting some snide remark, but Wufei had, somewhere along the line, fallen asleep while reading, so in silence, save for the soft rhythym of Wufei's breath or the occasional passer-by in the hall, Relena finished typing his paper, stapled it, put the laptop and printer away as quietly as she could manage, and picked up the paper scattered around the room.  
  
When she was finished, she washed the teacups, carefully(so as not to wake him) removed the glasses from Wufei's face and put them, as well as the book in his hand, on the nightstand.  
  
'Poor guy. You're out cold, aren't you?' Relena thought. 'I must've really worn you out tonight. I'll make it up to you though. I promise.'  
  
He looked so peaceful, sleeping, even in such an awkward position. That's when Relena decided that Wufei was her new mission, trying to help him stop hurting, and maybe that would help her own pain in the process; who knew? All she really knew was, after today, things would never be quite the same again. They could no longer consider themselves strangers to one another.  
  
It was late, already 11:30, so Relena assumed Quatre would not be returning tonight and turned out the lights on her way out.  
  
"Goodnight Wufei," she whispered before heading down the hall towards her own room, which she hadn't seen since early that morning when she'd moved in.  
  
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okay, chapter one down. I know, I know, I should be working on "Brothers after All" right now. I AM!!! Haha, just taking a break and this story is already written in it's entirety. . . probably post another chapter later. Five chapters long, if I remember correctly. I know it's a weird pairing, but that's kinda why I like it. . . I've never seen it done before. Ah, well, anyway, R&R is, as always, vastly appreciated. TTFN. 


	2. Part II: Confusion

"Waiting for You"  
  
by: Banshee Puppet  
  
Part II: Confusion  
  
"Oh shit! I'm going to be late!" Wufei cursed himself as he grabbed his paper, notebook, and text book, shoving a pen behind his ear before running out the door to get to his history class by eight a.m. If he'd have realized it was raining, he might have grabbed an umbrella too, or at the very least, a jacket. By the time he made it to class, he was soaking wet and five minutes late.  
  
"Pleased to meet all of you," Relena was saying in that sweet way she had as Wufei arrived.  
  
"Mr. Chang?" Professor Mattheius asked. It wasn't like the boy to be late, and in such obvious disarray.  
  
"My apologies professor. I overslept. It won't happen again."  
  
"Alright. Just take your seat please. I was just introducing Miss Dorlain."  
  
"Yes," Wufei answered as he sat down. "We have met."  
  
'Late? That isn't like you Wufei,' Trowa mused as he looked at the rather frazzled Chinese pilot. 'What happened yesterday?' he wondered.  
  
'Alarm clock, should've thought of that,' Relena mused as she sat down three seats back and one row to the right of Wufei. She'd noticed Trowa sitting in the back corner, but the green-eyed pilot didn't seem to want to be recognized, and maybe that was best for the time being. Even though Relena had made Wufei her new project, and was thus obsessing over him right now, that was mostly all to keep herself busy; she was still suffering over this Heero mess. She didn't know what she would do if she ran into either him or Duo today, and she knew that it was probably inevitable.  
  
Wufei groaned as he closed the door behind him. Ten a.m. after what felt like the longest class of his young life. What a morning, really? He sighed. 'I just need to take a shower, get in a clean uniform, then life will go back to normal,' he told himself as he absently dropped his book on his bed and opened the closet in search of some fresh clothes.  
  
"Wufei?" Quatre asked. It was weird to see Wufei here at this hour. Quatre had been sure that his roommate had arranged his schedule so that he would never see the blonde Arabian. But here he was-in a half-unbuttoned, wrinkled uniform, yanking the elastic out of his hair, no less.  
  
"huh?" Wufei asked with one of the most discouraged expressions Quatre had ever seen, as he looked up at toothbrush toting Quatre, who, from the looks of things, had just gotten up himself.  
  
".why is there printer paper in the bathroom?" Quatre asked, holding up a stack of some five white sheets.  
  
For a moment, Wufei just stared blankly at the paper, then he chuckled , shook his head, and answered, ".well.you see.we had a little accident," he told the other boy as he took the paper from the blonde's hand and returned it to the stack in his desk. "I suppose I missed some, sorry."  
  
"We?" Quatre asked.  
  
"That is what I said. Are you finished with the bathroom?"  
  
"Uh.uhhuh."  
  
"Good. Excuse me," Wufei said as he passed by Quatre and closed the door behind him.  
  
Perplexed, Quatre looked at the time. Trowa would be here any minute and he was still only half-dressed. He sat down and put on his socks and shoes, began buttoning his shirt and told Trowa to "come on in!" when his lover knocked on the door.  
  
"Running late as usual, I see," Trowa commented, giving Quatre a small good morning kiss before Quatre replied, "Yeah, sorry Trowa, it's been a weird day."  
  
Hearing the shower, Trowa realized, "Wufei is here? At this hour?"  
  
"Yeah. He's acting odd too," Quatre said, looking concerned.  
  
"He was late to class today," Trowa noted.  
  
"Wufei? Our Wufei? Late?"  
  
"Mmm," Trowa nodded. "Maybe he's coming down with something."  
  
"He's been in the shower for half an hour too. He's normally in and out. And he mentioned "we" earlier. Trowa, who's "we"? Since when does Wufei have a "we"?  
  
"I don't know, Quatre, but we'd better get going before we're late too, hm?"  
  
Somehow, today, just standing in the shower with the steaming water beating down on tired, naked flesh and long dark hair, rolling over tense muscles and soothing out aches that long days of hard work could hardly take time to notice, was the only thing in the world Wufei needed. He knew he was a wreck. Quite frankly, he'd seen it coming for a long time now. He needed to relax, meditate, SOEMTHING, the last missions had been hard, and now this mess with Relena was tearing at him and he was this close to shattering into a thousand tiny Wufei pieces. He tried, tried to relax, tried to meditate, tried to do anything, but every time he closed his eyes, Relena flashed across his vision. He kept worrying about her. She didn't strike him as the type of woman who needed to rely on others, but he couldn't get that broken expression out of his mind, or the way she slapped him either. She was stronger than he'd given her credit for; that's what he believed. So why was this weighing on him like this?  
  
Finally, he turned the shower off.  
  
"Why.why do I care?" Wufei wondered aloud.  
  
"Weird?" Duo asked. "You mean as opposed to the way he normally acts?"  
  
Heero smirked vaguely, but uatrr wasn't having any of it. "I'm serious Duo. He chuckled about the paper," Quatre said. "But effused o tell me why it was in te bathroom in the first place. What sort of accident requires printer paper in the bathroom?"  
  
Swallowing a bite of his hamburger, Trowa add simply, "he was late to class is morning. He looked like he'd slept in his uniform like Duo does sometimes. Maybe he's sick."  
  
"He looked fine when I saw him," Heero noted, speaking up finally. ".except that his glasses were broken. One of the arms was taped on," Heero told them.  
  
"I think." Duo said seriously, "that he must've.been abducted by aliens!"  
  
Heero slapped the back of his head gently. "Idiot," he scolded.  
  
Relena hadn't wanted to confront Heero and Duo so soon, but she couldn't figure out where Wufei was. He had to eat, right? If she wanted to find him, she'd just have to be strong about this.  
  
:"Afternoon," she said.  
  
Heero managed to freeze again, but Duo smiled and said, "hiya Relena! What's up?"  
  
"Well.have any of you seen Wufei? I can't find him, and."  
  
Seeing the shocked expressions, she added a quickly thought cover. "Professor Mattheius asked him to help me with my history so."  
  
Straight out lie and she knew it, but she wasn't about toe explain why she was really looking for the solitary pilot of Gundam 05.  
  
'So that's what he was talking to Wufei about after class,' Trowa thought.  
  
"When it rains, he usually eats lunch in the third floor study hall," Trowa told her.  
  
"Thanks" Relena said. "See you later."  
  
".did anyone else find that just a little odd?" Duo asked. "Aside from the lack of clinging to Heero..don't Relena and Wufei hate each other?"  
  
Heero rests his head in his hands, confusion setting in. "This has GOT to be a dream. I'm going to wake up any minute," he grumbled to himself.  
  
"There you are! Can't you just eat in the cafeteria like a normal person?" Relea asked.  
  
"It's quiet here.or at least, it WAS until you showed up," Wufei told her.  
  
Relena slapped the back of his head and scowled at him.  
  
"Hey! Stop that!" Wufei protested after saving himself from choking. "you don't need ot slap me all the time."  
  
"You're such a jerk," Relean told him as she sat down on the bench he had been sprawled out on before she arrived and leaned her head against his back, whispering, "but you know what? I think deep down, you might just be a human being."  
  
With Relena leaning on his back like this, Wufei was afraid to move. His mind was racing but saying nothing in particular. What he found the strangest was how uncomfortable he felt being comfortable around her. What was it about her? Trusting people wasn't Chang Wufei's style at all. But here was Relena, who was really all alone too, by no choice of her own, leaning on him and saying, "it wouldn't be so bad, would it Wufei? Being friends?"  
  
"Relena, I.friends?" He'd been the one known as the solitary dragon for so long; he had a hard tiem envisioning friendship. Friendship was when you cared about someone, wasn't it? When you worried about them, trusted them, enjoyed their company?  
  
"Yeah, friends," Relena said, not pushing.much. But he could hear her hope on her voice.  
  
A friend was someone who you were comfortable with.  
  
". . . "  
  
"Wufei?" she hadn't expected such a simple question to make him suffer like this. She could practically feel the constipated expression he must be wearing; the muscles hi his back were so tense that she was certain they would snap at any given moment.  
  
But then, with a small sigh, he relaxed a bit and answered her.  
  
".alright."  
  
---------  
  
Well, chapter two down! Three more to go. Shouldn't take me too long to get 'em up, but reformatting them so it's not one massive five chapter paragraph is a pain in the patootie. Opinions? Thoughts? Random whims? 


	3. Part III: Friendship

Well, let's see, there might be a little mild ooc on Wufei's part in this one. But not too bad, I think. In this chapter, Quatre does Algebra, Relena is a brat, Heero is grumpy(as if that's news to anyone), and Wufei decides to use a certain blue-eyed pacifist for target practice. . . and if I tell you anymore I'm gonna ruin the story. Read on! And remember, there's that little nifty shifty review button at the bottom of the page..  
  
----------------  
  
"Waiting for you"  
  
by: Banshee Puppet  
  
Part III: Friendship  
  
Wufei wasn't really sure what he'd gotten himself into, but he knew it was (at the very least) an excuse for Relena to hang around. He wasn't sure how he felt about that-bad if she continued to slap him all the time, he decided. But at the same time, he had to admit that he liked her, a little. So, she was his friend; that wasn't so bad. He'd just have to get used to it was all.  
  
'Strange day, but, not so bad, all in all,' he thought with a small smile as he opened the door, only to be nearly attacked by Duo with a thermometer in one hand and his other on Wufei's forehead.  
  
"What the hell is this?" Wufei asked, startled, as he found, not one, but all four of his fellow pilots in his room. It was four o'clock in the afternoon, the room was ALWAYS empty by four.  
  
"He feels normal?" Duo said as Wufei shoved him away, looking a bit irate.  
  
"ow, and he shoves normal too," Duo whined.  
  
Next thing he knows, Heero is practically on top of him, inspectinvely glaring at him. He jumps a bit. "Damnit Yuy, are you TRYING to give me a heart attack? .Winner, you're the logical, well, most logical, one-so, what is all this?" Wufei asked in exasperation.  
  
"Well," Quatre said sheepishly. "You see..you've een acting weird lately Wufei. We thought you might be sick or something. It's mot as if you'd tell any of us if you were.we were worried."  
  
"So what? I have a life and suddenly I need an intervention?" A Chinese curse escapes his lips and he says, "you're going to give me a stroke if you keep this up. Just do us all a favor and leave me the hell alone!" he bitched as he just barely escaped the room and slammed the door behind him.  
  
"With friends like you four who needs enemies? Seriously," Wufei complained as he headed down the hall.  
  
'Guess I'll go for a walk,' he thought, putting his key back into his pocket. '.a long walk.'  
  
"..."  
  
"Looks like he's back to normal," Trowa said after the shock of Wufei's outburst and escape wore off.  
  
Duo, predictably, started laughing hysterically.  
  
"Shut up.idiot," Heero teased, unable to hide a small smirk.  
  
"I love you too baby," Duo said with a wide grin.  
  
"See Quatre, worried over nothing," Trowa said.  
  
"I.guess you're right," Quatre answered hesitantly.  
  
'The day started so well,' Relena thought. 'I saw them together at lunch and I was fine, so what happened?' she thought as she sobbed . She didn't even know how long she'd been standing out here in the rain crying her eyes out like some sort of dummy. She was soaked straight through to the bone, she knew that, and it was cold-she could feel herself shivering. The problem was, she didn't care.  
  
'I thought I could be strong, I really did,' she thought. 'But seeing them like that.no denying it now.'  
  
It had been the last period of the day and the teacher asked Relean to get a box of pencils from the supply closet down the hall.  
  
She had expected to find the pencils. What she hadn't expected to find was Duo and Heero making out with matching hard-ons, and Heero's hand shoved down Duo's pants no less.  
  
"Relena!" they'd said, almost simultaneously. Heero looked like a kid with his hand stuck in the cookie jar. 'Okay, bad analogy,' Relena thought.  
  
"I.need a box of pencils," she'd said, to which Duo quickly obliged saying, mostly to himself, "well, this is a little awkward."  
  
"Relena, I.."Heero had tried to say.  
  
"It's alright Heero. You don't have to say anything. I already knew. I guess I've known for a while, really. You shouldn't worry so much. Just.do what makes you happy."  
  
"It's alright Heero. You don't have to say anything. I already knew. I guess I've known for a while, really. You shouldn't worry so much. Just.do what makes you happy."  
  
Yeah, she'd been strong to their faces. She was proud of herself, of how long she'd managed to hold it together for. But now she was falling apart, all alone out under this cherry tree. All alone. Empty. With no sense of a possible future, a life without him. Was this how Wufei had felt? Did he still feel like this? If so, he was stronger than he gave himself credit for.  
  
Wufei had been walking aimlessly through the halls for about an hour when he passed the big windows and the arch that you could see the cherry tree and the main entrance to the campus through.  
  
'Huh?' Someone was out there. 'Is that.RELENA! It is!' He ran to the archway. 'How long has she been out there?!'  
  
"RELENA!" he called.  
  
Hearing her name, she turned, still pretty dazed from the final downfall of her hoped-for future.  
  
He ran out to her. He looked worried again, she noticed. She didn't like that expression one bit on him.  
  
"Come inside. You'll get sick," he told her, and that's all it took for her to start sobbing again. So he wrapped his arms around her and held her against him. It felt awkward, but, what else could he do? She needed this.  
  
"Shhh. It isn't the end of the world, you know," he informed her quietly.  
  
".I don't know what I'm doing," Relena told him between sobs. "I only ever imagined one life for myself. It was going to be me and Heero-without that I'm lost. The future just up and left me stranded somewhere in the middle of the road. Wufei, what am I doing here?"  
  
"Is that all?" Wufei teased gently. "The future will find us again when it's ready to, Relena. In the meanwhile, let's just take things one day at a time."  
  
"."  
  
"Hey, we've still got each other, right?" he asked.  
  
Another sniffle stopped her tears as she looked up at him, surprised at the way he was able to comfort her like this and she accepted it-and him- without question, how easy it was to do so.  
  
"Wufei."  
  
"We're friends, remember Relena? I promised, didn't I?"  
  
"Yeah, you did."  
  
"Alright, so let's get you back to your room and into something dry before you get sick, okay? I'll walk you there."  
  
"This is another one I owe you," Relena whispered.  
  
"Who's counting?" he said dismissively. "From now on, let's just take care of each other."  
  
"This is my roommate, Nadia," Relena told Wufei upon entering the room. "Nadia, this is Wufei, a good friend of mine."  
  
"Pleased to meet you," Wufei said.  
  
"Likewise," Nadia answered. "You two get stuck in that rain or something?" the auburn-haired girl asked.  
  
"Yes, something like that," Wufei answered before turning to Relena and saying, "Now go put something dry on before you catch pneumonia."  
  
".I think I'll take a hot shower. Do you mind?"  
  
"Not at all. Go right ahead."  
  
Nadia's phone rand. "Hello? Sure. On my way. It's gross out, so meet me at the side gate. Yeah. Bye."  
  
"I'm going home for the weekend, Relena, so I'll see you Sunday night. You two behave now. Cya!"  
  
"She isn't around much, it seems," Relena said as she pulled a pair of faded blue sweat pants out of her dresser.  
  
".Wufei, will you still be here when I get out?"  
  
"Unless you want me to go."  
  
"Don't go," Relena told him, handing him the sweatpants and a large white t- shirt that read, "give life, donate blood" on the front and had some the place and date written on the back.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"You're all wet too, you know," Relena smiled weakly.  
  
"These should fit you. We'll put everything in a dryer when I get out of the shower."  
  
"Alright. So go on already."  
  
'He really surprised me today,' Relena thought as the hot water and the steamy bathroom began to soak the chill out of her bones. 'I didn't think he'd take our newfound friendship so seriously, but I guess Wufei isn't the type of guy to do things halfway. Fiercely loyal, about certain things, I guess. I'm going to have to think up something special to do for him-not to mention a good excuse for doing it.'  
  
She finished her shower and dried off, began to get dressed, thinking, 'Wufei, you really are a pretty decent person, but don't worry, you're secret's safe with me.'  
  
She combed out her hair and looked in the mirror at her beautiful sweats. "Well, I must really trust you to let you see me in this godawful get-up," she said to her reflection, exiting the bathroom then, and saying with a smile, "all better!"  
  
"mn. You look like you're feeling better too," Wufei said as he stood up.  
  
Seeing him in sweats and an old t-shirt made Relena laugh.  
  
"What?!?" he asked, suddenly looking offended.  
  
"I'm sorry Wufei. It's just that I've only ever seen you in one uniform or another. You look just like a normal guy now. The black and red school uniform suits you, but I like this look too. You seem more relaxed."  
  
"It's just clothing. As long as it's comfortable I don't much care about it," he said matter-of-factly.  
  
"And yet, you always look so stylish," Relena teased as she put his uniform in a basket of wet clothing.  
  
"You're such a brat," he told her, to which she stuck out her tongue and answered with, "Yep, that's why we get along. Now, laundry room. Come."  
  
She made everything sound so simple.  
  
It was late when Wufei finally went back to his own room, and he was in good spirits, looking forward to a good night's sleep. He'd surprised himself today with Relena, and it was a pleasant surprise. He didn't feel as if he had to be anything special for her. The more time he spent with the girl, the more he found that she was an easy person to be around.  
  
But Wufei was a little surprised to see Quatre both in their room and still awake at this hour, on a Friday no less.  
  
"You're home late," Quatre said.  
  
"No Trowa tonight?" Wufei returned.  
  
"Wufei, I wanted to apologize."  
  
"For what? Being concerned? Don't. I should be grateful-I'm not-but I should be. Stupid reason to abandon your boyfriend on a Friday night though."  
  
"Trowa abandoned me.or more specifically, my homework."  
  
"I see."  
  
"Wufei.I hate to bother you, but.how are you at Algebra?"  
  
"Hmph. What's the problem?"  
  
"EVERYTHING!!!"  
  
"Well, now that we've got THAT all cleared up." Wufei teased. He couldn't help it if he was in a good mood, could he?  
  
"There are too many letters and not enough numbers," Quatre complained as Wufei pulled his chair over to Quatre's cluttered desk. This could take a while.  
  
"I was fine with x, and then she had to go adding y and z! There should be a "one letter at a time" rule," the blond complained hopelessly. No wonder Trowa had abandoned him for the night.  
  
"Well, there is. Just not in the way you mean," Wufei told him.  
  
The desperate look on Quatre's face pulled a small grin out of Wufei again. He was giving Wufei that 'this is hopeless' expression, and coming from someone who'd come out on top of as many hopeless situations as they had, it seemed a little funny.  
  
"Don't worry," Wufei said. "I'll explain."  
  
"WUFEI!" Quatre screeched as his roommate opened the door, and pounced on the black-haired boy, grinning like a fool, and sending them both tumbling into the hallway to the obvious amusement of some of their fellow students on the way to their own rooms.  
  
"Unh. Okay, why the Duo impression?" Wufei asked, mentally deciding that Quatre was not allowed anywhere in the vicinity of sugar for at least a week, since he was very obviously on overload, which needed to be stopped, pretty much now.  
  
Quatre, sugarless, and the happiest he'd been in a while, pulled a wrinkled piece of paper out of his pocket and, shoving it giddily into Wufei's face, said, "You're my new hero Wufei! I passed my test!"  
  
"I was going to thank you as well," Trowa commented from the open doorway. "But now I'm a little jealous."  
  
That was all it took for Quatre to get up and bound at the other pilot, saying, "aw, now don't be like that. You know I still love you best Trowa!"  
  
On days like this, it was easy to forget they weren't all just normal kids going to school. It was easy to forget the war when your roommate was going on about how proud of his 78 in algebra he was, and your roommate's boyfriend was thanking you for saving his sanity. The days had been good to them lately.  
  
"Do you want to watch a movie with us Wufei?" Quatre asked. "We can go to Trowa's room if not."  
  
"No, that's fine, put it in. I'll make tea."  
  
"Ooo! And get the French cookies out too!" Quatre said happily.  
  
"They're called madelains," Trowa corrected.  
  
"I don't care," Quatre giggled. "They're yummy."  
  
Almost as soon as Wufei disappeared into the kitchen, there was a knock on the door.  
  
"I'll get it!" Quatre said as he bounded towards the door, opening it and saying, "Seventy-eight!.uh.oh, hi Relena. What's up?"  
  
"Hi Quatre. Is Wufei here?"  
  
"Yeah. In the kitchenette. Come on in."  
  
"Wufei! Relena's here to see you," Quatre said, sounding a little perplexed.  
  
"Oh! Be right there!" Wufei called back as he put the whistle down on the teapot.  
  
"Hello Relena. What is it?" he asked as he entered the main room.  
  
"Happy Birthday!" she beamed, holding out a small box with blue balloon wrapping paper on it and a little streamer ribbon on one corner.  
  
"It's your birthday, Wufei?"  
  
Quatre asked, offended at not being told.  
  
"Uh, yeah, sort of," Wufei said. "But, Relena, how did you know."  
  
"I'm pretty recourceful when I want to be," Relena said. "Now, seeing as you're Wufei and you probably haven't the faintest idea what to do with a birthday present, I'll give you a hint-you open it," she teased.  
  
Wufei felt awkward holding the little one foot square box. Equal amounts of curiosity and paranoia pulled at him as he wondered what could POSSIBLY be inside.  
  
He chuckled when he saw it, a little brown teddy bear wearing a white kung fu uniform and holding a yellow rose and a small brown case in its arms. He wasn't about to say it aloud, but it was probably the cutest thing he'd ever seen. Leave it to Relena to find something this adorable and this useless.  
  
The case, he discovered, held a pair of new glasses.  
  
"I got your prescription from Sally, so I know it's right," Relena said. "Now you can throw away the ones I broke. And they aren't as dorky as the old ones; they'll look good on you."  
  
"You're a piece of work," he told her. "You shouldn't do things like this."  
  
"Oh shh! Put 'em on and stop complaining. You want to be able to see for a change, don't you?"  
  
"I see fine."  
  
"And now you'll see better," Relena said, sticking out her tongue as he put the oval-framed glasses on.  
  
'They really do suit him,' Trowa noticed. 'She chose well.'  
  
'Relena is the friend Wufei's been spending all of his time with?' Quatre mused. 'That's so weird!'  
  
"You're such a brat," Wufei told her as he put the bear on the corner of his desk. "Do you want some tea? I got a mug for you to use, finally."  
  
"Really? Then I definitely want some, if I get my own mug and everything."  
  
"I'll be back," he said with a small sigh and a minute shaking of his head.  
  
"We were about to watch a movie," Quatre told her. "Wanna stay and watch it with us?"  
  
"That would be great, thanks. What movie?"  
  
Trowa looked at the label and said, "Dragonheart.if this old thing still works, that is."  
  
"Oh! Old movies are the best!" Relena said happily as Wufei reentered, giving Trowa and Quatre their tea and dropping the cookies in Quatre's lap before saying, "I don't really think you need any more sugar, but there are your cookies anyway," and going back into the small kitchenette to get the other two mugs that he left there.  
  
He smiled at the mug he'd purchased for her, remembering how he'd stumbled across it by pure accident two days before. One side with a smiley with it's tongue sticking out and the other side reading "BRAT" in big pink lettering.  
  
"Here," he said, handing it to her. "It has your name on it, so I thought it was appropriate."  
  
"Really?" she asked. Turning the mug around and seeing "brat" written on the other side, she slapped his arm.  
  
"Jerk!" she told him.  
  
"Are we finished now children?" Trowa asked, watching the display in disbelief. Wufei and Relena behaved around each other in a manner that would imply that they had grown up together. Best friends, obviously. Something more? Maybe with time. They made each other happier, that much was obvious, and he hoped they would continue to do so, for both of their sakes.  
  
"Just about," Wufei answered as he sat down on his bed and chucked a pillow at the back of Relena's head.  
  
Relena adjusted herself on the floor with it, lying down on her stomack and said, "you aren't getting it back now."  
  
"Alright, we're all settled, so let's watch the movie now," Quatre said as he burrowed a little deeper into Trowa's shoulder.  
  
".you're kidding!" Duo asked in disbelief over lunch the next day.  
  
"It was like being surrounded by three year olds," Trowa commented.  
  
"When Relena fell asleep, Wufei started launching paper missiles at her head," Quatre said, giggling. "I asked what he was doing and he told me, "target practice". I thought Relena was gonna kill him, but she just threw them right back, saying it was "retaliation" and he made a comment about how she was supposed to be a pacifist. At least now I understand how printer paper ended up on our bathroom floor. I was really curious."  
  
"It doesn't sound like Wufei at all," Duo said. "Or proper Miss Relena either! Man, I would've loved to have been there to see it though!" he laughed. "I think I'll stick with my alien theory though."  
  
When Heero didn't even bother to call him an idiot or slap him, Duo realized he was distracted.  
  
"Heero?"  
  
Heero just pointed. Sure enough Wufei was on the cafeteria line with Relena and the pair appeared to be having a great time with the meal selection, fighting over whether or not Wufei should have a cupcake it seemed, Relena of the opinion that he should, and Wufei of the opinion that he most definitely should not, as they took turns putting it on and taking it off of his tray all the way down the line. When Wufei finally won by offering it to the person behind them on line, who seemed to be enjoying the spectacle as much as they were, but accepted the cupcake greatfully anyway, Relena slapped the Chinese pilot's arm and called him a jerk.  
  
"Hiya Relena, Wufei!" Duo chirped as they began past the table.  
  
"Hello!" Relena returned with almost equal enthusiasm.  
  
"Huh? Oh, afternoon Maxwell," Wufei said, and got slapped again.  
  
"Hey!" he protested.  
  
"What did we agree about that, hmm?"  
  
Wufei sighed. "Afternoon DUO. Are you happy now, your royal pain in my highness?"  
  
"Yep! Much better!" Relena said with a grin. "Now come on. Let's eat outside. It's nice today."  
  
"Brat," Wufei informed her. "Why do I tolerate you anyway? It's just one grievance after another."  
  
"Yeah yeah yeah. I love you too Wufei, now let's go. See ya later boys."  
  
"If I didn't know better, I'd think they were married," Duo chuckled. "Who d'you think would wear the pants in THAT family?"  
  
"Relena, definitely!" Quatre giggled.  
  
"You think so?" Trowa asked a little skeptically, more to hear the blonde's reply than out of any need for debate.  
  
"Uhhuh. But you wouldn't be allowed to say anything about it in front of Wufei, if you wanted to live," Quatre said with a grin.  
  
Noticing Heero's far off expression, Duo inquired, "something bothering you Heero?"  
  
"I'm sorry, Duo. I have work on the brain.something I want to look into," he said as he stood. "Forgive me?"  
  
"Yeah, sure. Always. I'll see you later?"  
  
"Count on it," Heero returned, giving Duo a kiss right then and there, eliciting a small gasp from the long-haired boy. Pleasantly surprised' seemed to be a term fitting of Duo's mental state. Seeing the shock on his lover's face, Heero explained, "once in a while, Relena says something useful. I'll see you tonight."  
  
Once Heero left, Quatre and Trowa looked at Duo quizzically (or, to be more precise, Quatre looked at Duo in complete astonishment, and Trowa quirked his head slightly and just sort of stared at Duo.so, yeah, quizzically it is). Public displays were so out of character for Heero; they couldn't contain their curiosity, but Duo didn't know what to tell them until he remembered Relena stumbling across the two boys in the closet.  
  
"Well see.she um.said he should do what makes him happy so.wh-whatever the case, she took it well."  
  
A massive fumble on Duo's part and he knew it as well as anyone, but it was all, a little embarrassing. After all, how do you tell two of your best friends that the woman who's in love with your boyfriend walked in on you when you were about ten seconds shy of cuming all over yourself thanks to aforementioned boyfriend's nimble fingers? Duo figured he'd handled dancing around the subject pretty well, all things considered.  
  
Heero, on the other hand, was feeling rather guilty, and angry about feeling guilty on top of it. Kissing Duo in public like that had felt good, liberating, actually, but he felt like he'd betrayed the other boy by saying he wanted to get some work done. In truth, all he could think was, 'if he hurts her, I'll kill him.'  
  
Even if he didn't love Relena, that didn't stop him from caring about her in that over-protective, slightly older brother kind of way. It didn't make much sense to him either, but if nothing else, he knew that he had a great deal of respect for the blonde girl (thought there were times when her behavior just screamed Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder-he figured he wasn't really one to talk.).  
  
So, he was concerned. He HAD met Chang Wufei, after all, and even Perfect Solider Heero Yuy had to admit that the Chinese pilot had about as much tact and grace as an electric guitar playing death metal. And there was also the more mysogynistic side of pilot 05 that had reared its ugly head on more than one occasion. They claimed to be just friends; but as Heero watched them under the cherry tree, he wondered if something more was going on that neither realized.  
  
It was the way that Relena put her hand on Wufei's forearm gently and leaned in a bit closer than was necessary as she spoke, the way Wufei didn't pull away and, probably unconsciously, leaned slightly into her breath. 'Just friends,' Heero thought. 'Yeah right.'  
  
Fact was, as the weeks passed, though Wufei was only slightly more bearable to the other pilots, he was rarely alone. He'd leave the room in the morning, come back late in the evening, and when confronted about the strange behavior, his explanations almost always began with the phrase, "Relena and I."  
  
Quatre noticed that Relena's 'brat' mug had found a permanent home in their little dish drain and though the rose had long since wilted and been discarded, Wufei's bear had become a permanent fixture on the corner of his desk and held his glasses for him whenever they weren't on his face, which was more often than not, but then, Wufei rarely wore his old glasses either.  
  
His time with "the stalker" was something that Wufei was not permitted to live down. When the pair decided one Friday night to go to a play that Wufei had been interested in seeing, and Wufei was getting ready, Duo(the room seemed to be ever more frequently populated since teasing Wufei relentlessly had apparently become the favorite pass-time of the other pilots) asked, "like a date?" with his usual giddy humor and manic grin, the one Wufei long ago dubbed "so wide it must be painful."  
  
"Like two friends going to a play, Maxwell," Wufei returned abruptly.  
  
"What did we agree about that!?!" Duo imitated the blonde girl giddily, knowing Relena had made Wufei promise to start calling his friends by their first names.  
  
But at the same time, Duo added, "and dinner, don't forget dinner!" Quatre chimed in with a giggle, earning a glare from Wufei which Trowa translated by saying, "I believe that would be the "I know where you sleep" glare, Love. Better watch out."  
  
"I'm not worried! My Trowa will protect me!" he said, unphased.  
  
"And who's going to protect me, hm?" Trowa asked suppressing a small smile as he gave Quatre's shoulders a slight squeeze.  
  
"I will," Heero chimed in, earning a raised eyebrow from both Duo and Quatre. As for Wufei, he was too busy digging his shoes out of his closet to pay the antics much mind.  
  
He was still only half-dressed, thanks to plentiful distractions, his hair still down from the recent shower, and he mostly just wished his fellow pilots would go away. He liked them a lot better when they were obsessing over one another and leaving him in peace.  
  
But Heero continued, "I don't really think Duo needs encouragement, but anyone who hurts my friends is in for it." He said it in jest, with a tone of humor that sounded abut as forced as Trowa's or, he suspected, his own. All the same, it sent a twitch up Wufei's spine. It wasn't the first time Heero had said something like this to him, and the last time the Japanese boy had been deadly serious.  
  
It had been the day they'd run into the other pilots in the cafeteria. Wufei's last class of the day ended at 4 p.m. and Heero was waiting for him outside of the classroom.  
  
"Yuy?" he'd asked.  
  
"If you hurt her, I'll kill you," Heero had said.  
  
"Don't worry Yuy. Relena's my friend. I have no intention of doing anything even remotely resembling what you did to her.and don't think for a second that I'm not still pissed as hell at you over it."  
  
That had stung; he could see it in Heero's eyes, but the guy deserved it as far as Wufei was concerned. If he wasn't in love with her, he should have said so and let her move on with her life. But apparently Heero didn't want her AND didn't want anyone else to have her either. And even if Wufei wasn't interested in Relena in a less-than-platonic way, Heero was convinced otherwise. The end result was still the same-over the past month the tension between the two boys had been tangible, hard to miss.  
  
Now, pulling on his elastic too hard as he thought of it, the band snapped on Wufei's fingers, leaving a thin red line in it's wake.  
  
"Shit!" he cursed, aggrevatedly tossing it in the garbage and searching his drawers for another, without success. Annoyed about his broken elastic now, he realized, for tonight at least, he'd have to tolerate wearing his hair down, and after pulling a brush through the long silky strands, he let them tumble around his shoulders and pulled a light blue silk shirt from his closet. He only had five minutes before Relena would get here.  
  
'Hate dressing up,' he thought as he fastened the buckle of his belt and sat down to put his shoes on. Almost done, there was a knock on the door.  
  
"Be right there!" he called as he tied his laces.  
  
"Sorry for making you wait. I had four very annoying things distracting me," he told her as he opened the door.  
  
With her hair pulled up off of her neck and the wine red dress she was wearing, Relena looked stunning, and Wufei couldn't help but notice. But he didn't have the time to think about the fact that he was thinking about how beautiful his best friend was because the first words out of her mouth were, "your hair!"  
  
"My elastic snapped. I'll deal with it. Ready?"  
  
Relena nodded and the two left, but out of the corner of her eye Relena kept stealing glimpses of Wufei. He had the most beautiful hair she had ever seen, like satin, and it was all she could do to not reach out and touch it. The little girl in her that had never fully grown up just wanted to play with that hair, and part of her had to admit-Wufei looked good. The silk shirt fell on him just right and displayed in the evening breeze muscles that were normally concealed beneath polyester or cotton, and that hair, she couldn't get over his hair. If it was up to her, an elastic band would never suffer that hair again.  
  
As they rode into the city, Relena realized suddenly that Wufei was one of the most beautiful men she'd ever seen, and she wondered why she'd never noticed before-too obsessed with Heero, she figured. And when she finally realized that she was checking out her best friend, she tried to force the thoughts from her mind. They were friends, after all, nothing more. But it was okay to think her friend was beautiful, wasn't it? Sure it was.  
  
But as they discussed the play over dinner and she realized how intelligent and cultured the Chinese Pilot actually was under the gruff exterior, she found herself thinking, 'if he keeps this up, I can fall for him, hard.' She chose to ignore the little voice in her head when it said that. She wouldn't give up her friendship with Wufei for anything; it was too special to her. She liked what they had, didn't need anything else. And besides, she was pretty sure that once he had his usual clothes back on, his hair tied back into that dramatic ponytail, he'd return to being just Wufei. And Wufei was convinced that no matter how smart, beautiful, strong, and well.sexy, Relena turned out to be, deep down, she was still just Relena, his friend, the brat.  
  
If they had known that a simple play could change everything, they might not have gone.  
  
And dinner didn't help either. Relena laughed her way to the restroom after Wufei said, "so help me, if that guy calls us the 'charming young couple' one more time, I will not be held accountable for my actions." Not that Wufei or Relena really understood why it bothered him so much, but fact is, it did. And the fact that their waiter kept looking at his friend's cleavage was doing nothing to sweeten his mood.  
  
"Hey, we're here to have fun, remember? Just relax Wufei. It's fine, really, I'm used to it," Relena assured him.  
  
".but, Relena, you shouldn't have to be," he replied, and his voice and expression were so genuine, she couldn't help but give him a sweet smile.  
  
"There are just some things a girl has to deal with, Wufei. It's the way the world is, I suppose," she shrugged. "Guys are just like that.well, a lot of guys are, anyway. You seem pretty immune," she teased, "but then again, all your guy friends are gay."  
  
"It just isn't right," Wufei said as he shook his head. "I'm sorry if I'm ruining your evening, Relena."  
  
"Not at all. Hey, let's dance! It'll give your temper a chance to cool off, you hothead."  
  
"I AM NOT.!" Wufei had begun to say, but when Relena cocked her head and gave him a look, he shut up rather quickly.  
  
Maybe he WAS a LITTLE hot-under-the-collar.a little.  
  
Dancing with Relena calmed him somewhat miraculously. She smelled really nice, something he had noticed vaguely before, but now he couldn't seem to escape the scent of her. And she was beautiful, easily the most beautiful woman in the place. And HE was dancing with her, he thought with some pride. 'Stop that!' he scolded himself. 'This is Relena. Relena who called me a liar and chased me down the hall. Relena who slapped he. Relena with the 'brat' mug. Relena who loves old movies and sugar cookies. Relena with the too-blue eyes. Relena who likes chamomile tea and old movies and teases me relentlessly and bought me a teddy bear for my birthday and.Relena who went to all that effort to find out when my birthday was in the first place. Relena who smells like lilies and I want to kiss. No. Not that last one. Relena, my best friend, who I want to kiss.No. No. I don't. Relena who.'  
  
"You should wear your hair down more often. It's a good look for you. All the girls at school would be all over you if they saw you tonight. You're a pretty handsome guy when you let yourself be, you know, Wufei."  
  
'What am I saying?!? He's going to think I.'  
  
'Relena who likes my hair and thinks I'm handsome and I.stop that! Chang Wufei, what's your problem? Are you going to start going gaga over every beautiful girl you see now? No, just this one. Relena. I want to kiss Relena. Shutup Shutup Shutup!'br Seeing a pained expression cross Wufei's face, Relena stopped dancing and asked "Wufei?"  
  
"I don't care about that," he told her a little distantly.  
  
"Right. Silly me. I guess you don't have time for it. Or.Wufei, is it because of Meiran?"  
  
"NO. No. It used to be, but." 'there's someone else now.no!' "it isn't anymore. My life doesn't have room for that sort of thing right now. Besides, I'd have to keep too many secrets. It wouldn't be fair to either party involved."  
  
'Either party involved, like he's trying to distance himself from the subject. Wufei.' Relena sighed mentally. "It's just so sad is all," she said. "I mean, you're all alone, really."  
  
"Not really. I have the other guys, whether I want them or not. And you, of course," Wufei said. She just looked so sad he HAD to say something.  
  
"Yeah!" Relena said, grinning at him. "You'll always have me. Don't you dare forget that!"  
  
"Never."  
  
"."  
  
The silence was awkward at best, and a bit too intimate for either's liking, so Wufei broke it after a few minutes.  
  
"It's late. We should go back."  
  
"You're right. This was fun though. We should do it again sometime."  
  
"Yes. We should."  
  
"You're in late," Nadia commented as Relena walked in. She was up doing her homework.  
  
"Yeah, I was off-campus for the evening."  
  
"Ah. So you finally went out with that guy you like!" Nadia said, smiling her itching-for-the-gossip smile.  
  
"Guy I like?"  
  
"Yeah, you know, whatshisname, the Chinaman."  
  
"Wufei?" Relena asked with a perplexed expression.  
  
"Yeah! That's it! Wufei, the wet cutie. So, good date?"  
  
"No, Nadia, Wufei and I are just friends," Relena clarified.  
  
"Yeah. Uhhuh. Keep telling yourself that."  
  
'Is Nadia right? Am I attracted to Wufei?' Relena wondered as she absent- mindedly pulled the clips out of her hair.  
  
"Have fun?" Quatre asked as Wufei walked in, looking pretty distracted.  
  
"Uhhuh," Wufei mumbled whilst pulling at the top button of his shirt. His head hurt so much from thinking that he was ready for bed.  
  
"Oh, here!" Quatre said as he shot an elastic in Wufei's direction. "A present from Duo."  
  
"Oh. Thanks."  
  
"Something bothering you, Wufei?" Quatre asked. "You seem distracted."  
  
"No. Nothing. I'm just tired Quatre."  
  
"You're lying, but it's okay. If you change your mind and want to talk about whatever-ya know, sports, the weather, your conflicted feelings regarding Relena, I'm right here."  
  
'Conflicted feelings regarding Relena? Way to drop a hint. Am I that obvious?'  
  
"Goodnight Winner."  
  
"Goodnight Wufei."  
  
It was difficult coming to terms with the fact that her feelings for Wufei hadn't changed with is wardrobe. The warm smile, the thoughtful frown, those dark, lonely eyes-she couldn't remember life without them suddenly, and didn't want to. But she decided, to keep their friendship safe, it would be her little secret.  
  
"You seem distracted," she said as they sat on the front steps of the school.  
  
"Perhaps a bit. Just thinking about.you know, things."  
  
"Work."  
  
"Yes."  
  
Actually, he was thinking about "work" and Relena. She already knew all of his secrets, but he would do nothing in regards to his love for her. To be near her like this, he'd decided, as often as possible, was enough. It would have to be.  
  
And then the inevitable day came when Wufei got a call that would send him halfway across the globe on a mission.  
  
~Knock. Knock.~  
  
"Wufei? What's up?" Relena asked when she found him at her door at ten p.m. on a Friday night, not all-too-common for him. Then she saw the duffel on his shoulder and her heart jumped into her throat.  
  
"I wanted to tell you that I'll be leaving now," Wufei said flatly, making deliberate effort to keep emotion out of his voice and doing quite well of it, though his eyes betrayed him, "rather than simply disappearing without a trace."  
  
"You.have work to do," Relena stated, just as flatly, but on her voice, the tone only gave the impression that she had been struck by something suddenly.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Please be careful."  
  
"I always am. Well, I suppose that was it, really. Relena, goodb."  
  
Relena did the most impulsive thing she could fathom. Quickly, she grabbed his wrist before he could turn to go and kissed his cheek quickly before pulling back away from him.  
  
"Come back soon," she said. "I.I'll be here waiting for you to come back, so you'd better hurry."  
  
Wufei, stunned, dropped his bag. His heart ached as she spoke, but no words would form in his mind long enough for him to speak. He knew only that she didn't want him to say goodbye, wanted him to return, and that she had kissed him; he could still feel the warmth of her lips lingering on his flushed cheek.  
  
Noticing his stunned confusion, Relena spoke again. "I'm telling you, Wufei, that I'll be right here, waiting for you, no matter how long it."  
  
Now it was Wufei's turn to be impulsive, something that didn't come all to naturally to him. He was pretty sure that Relena didn't love him the way that he loved her, but he still, quickly, pulled her into his arms, one hand with slender fingers tangled in her hair, which was soft in the way that freshly cleaned sheets are soft, and kissed her. It was a needy kiss, filled with passion and longing, and Relena realized that the thing he longed for, was her-for her to return his love. Of course she would kiss him back, of course she would rest her hands on his strong shoulders and let her eyes fall closed, trusting him completely.  
  
After a long few moments, he pulled away, picked up his bag and said, "I'm sorry Relena." It was a whisper really. "I shouldn't have. Please forgive me."  
  
And he turned, and he left.  
  
"Oh Wufei," she whispered, running her fingers gently over swollen lips, still moist with the taste of him, his smell still lingering in the air all around her. "There's nothing to forgive. As long as you come back to me, there's nothing to forgive at all."  
  
-------------  
  
aw, smoochies. Anywhoo, there are two more chappies, but I haven't typed them up yet, so they'll take a little longer for me to post. And if I don't keep updating "Brothers After All" I think I'm going to start getting hate mail. Okay, not really but, eesh. . . Sophie is gonna kick my ass if I don't finish that story! Uh, so yeah, . . . I write pretty fast though, so I guess another maybe week or two before the next chap is up on this story. I'm anticipating being done with the other story by then. 


	4. Part IV: Separation

Awlrighty! Still don't own the g-gang, but I DO own a notebook with edible paper, if that counts for anything. . .  
  
Ahem, uh, anyways, let's recap, shall we? This is a Wufei x Relena ficcie. Other pairings are Duo x Heero, & Trowa x Quatre. The boys have some down time. Relena got heartbroken and became best friends with Wufei. Wufei has to leave on a mission, but before he left he decided to say goodbye to Relena and ended up KISSING HER!!! Now he's who knows where doing who knows what, and Relena is waiting for him to return. Will these two EVER get it together?  
  
------------------  
  
"Waiting for You"  
  
by: Banshee Puppet  
  
Part IV: Separation  
  
He slept with that ridiculous bear every night. Wufei had never thought it was possible to miss another person so much, but he supposed love was just like that, and he was very much in love. He still couldn't believe he'd been so bold as to kiss her, but she had kissed back, he was sure of it; he could almost feel her lips on his, even now-so warm, so soft, so exactly what he'd thought Relena's lips would be. And she had said she'd wait for him. Did she mean it the way he thought? The way he wanted her to mean it? Was there any possibility, no matter how remote, that she loved him back?  
  
He had to know, so he dared to be bold once again, and prepared to send off an email to the woman who had changed his life for good.  
  
-------  
  
Relena groaned, who could POSSIBLY be bothering her this early in the morning?  
  
"Heero?"  
  
"Wufei is gone."  
  
"I know. He left last night."  
  
That had surprised him, so Relena smiled slightly and added, "He at least has the common courtesy to say goodbye, unlike some other people I know." Just teasing, and they both knew it.  
  
Heero frowned. "Did he DO anything to you?"  
  
Oh, this was getting old quick. "How is this any of your business, Heero?"  
  
"Did he?"  
  
"He kissed me."  
  
"That bastard! I'm. . ."  
  
"But I kissed him first," she said, and closed the door in Heero's shocked face. That had felt surprisingly good-liberating, actually. Relena giggled at the memory of a slack-jawed Heero and crawled back into bed.  
  
--------  
  
Stunned, yeah, that was one way of putting it. Oh, having a door slammed in his face at seven a.m. on a Saturday was no big deal, Duo did it to him all the time. What was a big deal was that this was Relena Darlain; Relena was polite-or at least she used to be. Before Wufei-who was very much NOT polite-had gotten to her.  
  
That Relena could fall for a guy like Wufei Chang was not only unexpected, it was downright beyond fathoming. Relena Darlain and Wufei Chang, was it even possible? No. No way. He positively refused to believe it.  
  
"Hey, Heero. I'm over here," Duo commented irritably. It was just like Heero to mentally wander off in the middle of a date.  
  
"Huh? . . . Sorry Duo, I was just. . ."  
  
"Thinking?" Yeah. I noticed. You've been distracted all month. So why not just get whatever it is out in the open. Is this about us? Do you, ya know, not want to. . . be together anymore?" Duo asked over the quickly forming lump in his throat.  
  
"No! Duo, god no! I love you more than anything. Don't ever think like that. I. . . I don't know what I'd do. . . if you. . . were gone."  
  
It was painful for Heero to even think of it. Had he really been that distant? He was trying so hard.  
  
"Relena slammed a door in my face this morning," he said finally. "I've just been. . . concerned."  
  
"Ya know Heero, this big brother syndrome of yours would be cute if it wasn't so disturbing."  
  
"I don't want to see her hurt anymore."  
  
"You can't protect her from life, Heero. Besides, 'fei isn't as bad as you think. You should cut him a little slack once in a while. He's a quiet guy, but that doesn't mean he's bad. He's just a little afraid of getting close, I think. Kinda like you were. I'm sure he's got his reasons. And he's our friend, in case you forgot."  
  
"He hates women," Heero replied flatly and scowled.  
  
"Maybe he doesn't anymore. He likes Sally. He's in love with Relena. Ya'd have to be a fool not to see it. Just relax and enjoy your lunch, huh babe?"  
  
"Sorry Duo. I guess I'm acting like an ass. I'll have to make it up to you."  
  
"You sure will. And on that note, we're going clubbing tonight, and you WILL dance, all damn night if I say so."  
  
Heero sighed. It was going to be a long night.  
  
------------  
  
DELETE. DELETE. DELETE.  
  
Wufei leaned back with a sigh. 'What am I supposed to say anyway I'll have to think of something later; I've got work to do.'  
  
---------  
  
"Hey Relena!" Quatre called from their usual corner of the cafeteria.  
  
"Hello Quatre, Trowa."  
  
"Why don't you join us?" Quatre asked. "Better than eating alone, right?"  
  
"Sure. Thanks."  
  
"You must be pretty bored with Wufei gone now, huh?"  
  
"Oh, you know, a little. But it's no big deal. He'll be back. He promised-in his own sort of way."  
  
-----------  
  
Relena,  
  
I'm beginning to think that this mission is quite the waste of time; all the same, it's going to be a while before I'm finished.  
  
I.  
  
DELETE.  
  
Relena,  
  
I had a bit of free time, so.  
  
DELETE.  
  
Relena,  
  
It's only been three days, but I miss you already. I never realized how quiet life was without you. All the same, I'll be stuck here for a while yet.  
  
I keep thinking about kissing you, and I realized that if I had to go back, I would do it again.  
  
"That's awful," Wufei grumbled.  
  
DELETE. 'This is ridiculous.'  
  
He took a deep breath and strengthened his resolve.  
  
Relena,  
  
I love you.  
  
Wufei  
  
SEND.  
  
He punched those five words into the computer and hit send before he would let himself think about it, and now as he stared at the words MESSAGE SENT SUCCESSFULLY, he gulped, feeling suddenly a little nauseous.  
  
'Moron. What did you just do?'  
  
But there was no turning back now.  
  
----------  
  
'It's from Wufei,' Relena thought as she looked at the email with no subject in her mailbox. 'I wonder how he's doing,' she thought as she waited for the message to load.  
  
Relena,  
  
I love you.  
  
Wufei  
  
REPLY.  
  
Wufei, I love you too, you dummy. How are you? I miss you. Come back soon.  
  
Relena  
  
SEND.  
  
With a smile and a light blush, Relena shook her head. "That dork. It probably took him half the day to write that," she giggled.  
  
---------  
  
Wufei stared at the email screen. New message from Relena.  
  
'Well, this is it, the 'I want to be your friend' reply,' he thought as he took a deep breath and opened the message.  
  
"She. . . she loves me?"  
  
He hadn't thought it was a possibility. But there it was, right in front of his face in Arial 12 pt. Relena loved him back.  
  
REPLY.  
  
Relena,  
  
I think I had to read your email five times before I believed it. That sounds so juvenile, but it's true. You've just been such a miracle to me that I was sure I'd gone too far. I miss you so much. It's so quiet without you. I never realized my life was this quiet before. I'll be stuck here a while longer, whatever the case. But I will come back. Nothing can keep me away now. I'll write you again tomorrow.  
  
Love,  
  
Wufei  
  
SEND.  
  
"Did I just write that? She's turning me into a woman!" he scoffed. "Funny, thought I'd mind more."  
  
---------  
  
Wufei,  
  
Stop doubting yourself. You're not to far from miraculous either, you know. You've been with me through so much. I wouldn't mind at all if, in another fifty years, when we're both old and gray and toothless, sitting on a porch together after a comfortable life together, we look back at these past few months and said, "oh, that? That was kid stuff."  
  
Love,  
  
Relena  
  
---------  
  
Relena,  
  
I look forward to it.  
  
Wufei  
  
---------  
  
Relena sat back and smiled. "He wants to be old and toothless with me."  
  
REPLY.  
  
---------  
  
This went on for weeks. She got emails from Wufei every day, and then, one day, the emails stopped coming.  
  
"I'm probably just being paranoid. I know he's busy, I'm just, I'm worried about him, Heero. Half of me wants to go running off after him like I used to do to you, but I told him I'd wait here, so I'm gonna."  
  
"You've really gotten a lot stronger, Relena," Heero said. "I'm sure he's fine."  
  
But, fact was, Heero wasn't too sure at all. Wufei could take care of himself, but it wasn't like him to fall out of contact like that unless something major had happened. That night, Heero tried to send a message to the Chinese pilot and got a returned FAILURE DELIVERY notification.  
  
"Where the hell are you, Wufei?" he wondered just as Duo came bursting into the room, breathless.  
  
"I just got word on my next mission," he said. "Can you take care of the transfer stuff for me, Heero? I gotta go, now." He sounded half-panicked.  
  
"Duo, what is it?"  
  
"It's Wufei. Heero, he's M.I.A."  
  
For a moment, the world stopped.  
  
"Go," Heero said tersely. "And be careful."  
  
----------  
  
His vision was blurry, he was sweating profusely, and it felt as if Nataku had stepped on his chest. 'Not good,' Wufei thought as he tried, unsuccessfully, to focus. He was sick, really sick, and it was pretty much a miracle that he'd made it to Sally at all.  
  
He wanted to write Relena, tell her not to worry, apologize for not writing in a few days, but he could barely stand.  
  
"Wufei," Sally gasped, but he only got as far as "you look awful," before passing out.  
  
----------  
  
"Yuy here," Heero said, hoping it was a call from Duo. "Sally? What is it?"  
  
"Are you missing somebody?" she asked, referring to the rather ill pilot of Shenlong, but to her surprise, Heero's eyes widened marginally and he said, "Duo is with you?" looking rather confused.  
  
"Duo? No. Wufei. He stumbled in here last night and he's been out cold ever since. . . "  
  
"Wufei is THERE!?!"  
  
"Yeah, and pretty sick. He's caught a virus. . . "  
  
"Shit!"  
  
'Did Heero just say 'shit'?' Sally blinked before continuing. "He'll recover thought. What's this about Duo?"  
  
"He went to find Wufei."  
  
"Ah. Well, looks like you can call him back then. He's right here with me and I'm nursing him back to health."  
  
A groan in the background signifies that Wufei is waking up.  
  
"Ah. It's sleeping beauty. I'd better get going. Make sure Duo gets a check-up, whether he's feeling well or not, just in case he's caught the same thing Wufei has. Sally out."  
  
---------  
  
"Heero?" Relena asked. "Wufei is fine. Just a bit sick. Sally is taking care of him, so don't worry. I going to get Duo. Bye."  
  
'That's more words than he usually says in a week,' Relena thought as she watched Heero rush off. 'Maybe I'll call Sally for a slightly more detailed description. Make sure he's really alright.'  
  
----------  
  
"Relena?"  
  
"Hello Sally. I'm just calling because Heero told me Wufei was there with you. How is he?"  
  
Confused, Sally looks across the room at Wufei who as suddenly looked up after having spent the past hour paying very close attention to a bowl of cold soup that he, and Sally, both knew he had no intention of eating.  
  
"He's awake, if you want to talk to him for a bit, not too long though. He's pretty sick, whether he wants to admit it or not."  
  
"Thank you."  
  
"Alright, just hold on. I'm going to bring the phone to him". . .  
  
"Hey," Wufei said a bit hoarsely. He looked terrible, pale and a little sallow, Relena realized, feeling angry at herself for being upset that he didn't write.  
  
"Hey," she returned, honestly just glad to see him and know he was still alive.  
  
"I'm sorry I didn't write," he told her. "But the control panel had a minor meltdown. Half of the keys don't work just now."  
  
"It's fine, Wufei. Don't worry about it. Just get better and come back, okay?"  
  
"Sure. I'll be there in no time, you just stay put a little longer."  
  
"I'm not going anywhere. You look exhausted. You should stop giving Sally a hard time. I know you are, so don't even try to deny it. Anyway, you should get some sleep."  
  
"I will."  
  
"Promise."  
  
"I promise."  
  
"You're such a jerk, making me worry like that."  
  
"Don't be a brat," he replied, smiling weakly.  
  
"Well, I should let you go. See you soon, Wufei."  
  
". . .um, Relena?"  
  
"What is it?"  
  
". . . I love you." It had taken a lot to say that right in front of Sally and they all knew it, but he meant it. He couldn't remember the last time he'd meant anything so much.  
  
"I love you too."  
  
Wufei smiled and hung up the phone. It had been worth it, just for that. 'She does. Relena really loves me. I can see it in the way she smiles,' he thought.  
  
"Not a word," he warned Sally. "Just take the phone. I'm tired."  
  
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well boys and girls, that's part four! One more part, and it's one of the shortest ones in the story, so it shouldn't take me very long to type. Enjoy. R &R, and remember, you can pickle a pomegranate, but you can't pomegranate a pickle. (not sure why you'd want to do either, but, anyway. . . TTFN. 


	5. Part V: Love

Disclaimer: don't own 'em, just love 'em.  
  
Summary: Okay kits, this is the last chapter of "Waiting for You". It also happens to be the shortest chapter of the fic. Uh, I don't know why that is. Guess you can consider it a quazi-epilogue. Anyways, here goes. . .  
  
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Wufei couldn't recouperate quickly enough for his liking, but he wanted a clean bill of health when he saw Relena again, and now he had just that. He felt ridiculous, having even gone as far as dressing for the occasion, wearing his hair down the way she'd mentioned liking it once, and changing into a pair of khakis and a dark blue button-down with the sleeves cuffed to just below the elbow. He could hardly remember the time passing, but it was spring now and the cherry tree was in bloom.  
  
He hadn't told her he was coming today, wanting to surprise her, and hoped now that he had made the right decision.  
  
So, taking a deep breath, he knocked.  
  
"Wufei!" Relena's eyes lit up as she nearly tackled him, throwing her arms around his neck.  
  
Wufei just embraced her tightly, saying softly, "surprise."  
  
"This is the best surprise I've gotten in a long time," she whispered, leaning back and looking up into dark eyes.  
  
"Me too," he told her and, carefully this time, leaned in to kiss her, finding quickly that her lips had a way of making everything else completely unimportant. He couldn't seem to stop kissing her, and she didn't seem to want him to.  
  
The only thing that was capable of breaking their precious moment of kissing (rather passionately now) in the middle of the hallway, was Duo Maxwell's all-too-chipper voice, calling, "hey, you two. . ." Blinking as they are brought back to reality, they look at him, who as expected, has Heero hooked onto his arm(the latter with some amount of wide-eyed disbelief on his face). Wufei can feel the heat flooding into his cheeks.  
  
'Will not blush. Will not blush. Will not blush. Am blushing.'  
  
"Get a room, huh?" Duo teases.  
  
Relena, flushed herself, says, "we've got one," and pulls Wufei inside, closing the door behind them and pushing him gently, almost playfully, up against it, saying, "now, where were we? Oh, I remember," and running her fingers through Wufei's hair, she kissed him again.  
  
'God the feeling of her lips, her fingers in my hair. This is heaven and I don't want to ever let go,' he thought.  
  
'Is this a dream? It's got to be a dream,' Relena thought. 'Nothing has ever felt this good.'  
  
Stopping for breath, Wufei's dazed eyes adjust to the room-one bed. "Since when has this been a single?" he asked flatly.  
  
"Nadia moved back to the city. Said it was too quiet for her here. And Heero decided I'd like a single much better. I think we're friends now, thanks to you."  
  
"I had nothing to do with it," he said, still holding onto her as if letting go would signify the end of this beautiful dream he was having.  
  
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"You were right, Duo," Heero said, disbelief at the statement just barely masked on his voice. "They suit one another well, I think."  
  
"Told you. You've got nothing to worry about!" Duo said as he looked out the window.  
  
Heero came up behind him and, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend, kissed the side of Duo's neck.  
  
"I think I like having nothing to worry about," he whispered.  
  
Duo cooed softly. Heero had made the first move again. He turned and the boys locked lips.  
  
"Remind me to thank Relena for giving you that advice."  
  
"Later," Heero replied. "For now, come to bed."  
  
"Yes sir!"  
  
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Wufei was still against the door, no inkling how much time had passed, and he didn't care.  
  
"You're an angel," he whispered.  
  
"This feels so unreal," she returned. "I've never been this happy before. I'm afraid if I move, I'll wake up."  
  
Relena rested her head on Wufei's shoulder and he placed one hand gently on the back of it.  
  
"Don't be afraid, Relena. There's no reason for it. I love you, so even if we are asleep, even if none of this is real, I'll wait for you in every dream."  
  
"And every time I close my eyes, I'll find you. . . Wufei, let's stay like this forever," Relena said softly, looking up into his dark, endless eyes.  
  
They had never intended to fall in love, but there was no falling out of it now, and they both knew it.  
  
"No, Relena," he replied. "Forever isn't long enough."  
  
~The End~  
  
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well, that's it. As usual I seem to have an ending that is libel to cause cavities. Pure Fluff, I swear. Anyway, what did ya think? Opinions. Opinions are good. We like them very much, so r&r. 


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